Course Descriptions

Global Health Practice (3 credits): Behavioral, social and cultural aspects of health and disease will be presented. Students will learn how behavioral and social theories relevant to health promotion and disease prevention efforts apply in understanding social determinants of health. Factors that protect or erode health – and consequently health systems – exist at multiple levels will be discussed. Interventions that improve health and address factors at the individual, community, societal and global levels will be presented.

Global Health Systems and Development (3 credits): Health systems around the world face the challenge of constantly improving population health in an environment of limited societal and healthcare resources. Despite the commonality of health systems worldwide, no two healthcare systems are identical. This course introduces an approach for comparative analysis with a focus on assessing performance of diverse health systems.

Infectious Disease and Tropical Medicine (3 credits): Major diseases of tropical and developing countries will be presented. Emphasis is placed on important parasitic diseases, gastroenteritis and vaccine preventable diseases. Course materials focus on the etiology, pathogenesis, symptomatology, diagnosis and treatment of these diseases. Epidemiological characteristics, control methods and current research directions are also described.

International Program Evaluation and Impact Assessment (3 credits): Students will learn and apply tools that are frequently used to determine whether policies and programs at local, national and international levels are achieving their intended objectives. Topics include the key components of field research, ethics in field research, developing a research focus and research question, conducting a literature review, gathering data and data management, and analyzing data and reporting.

Field Experience in Global Health Practice (3 credits): A key component of the Global Health Practice program is the mandatory field experience that utilizes inter-professional education and facilitates understanding through first-hand experience and immersion in the culture being studied. All students select their own experience that builds on the knowledge and skills they have gained in previous program coursework, along with learning acquired from their prior academic and career experiences. Students will research and develop a project plan before their field experience begins. The project plan will be approved by program faculty and partner organization before.